Cyber Monday is one of the biggest money-making holidays for online retailers. But many people are unsure how to increase organic traffic in the build-up to this event; this can also be a major problem for some digital marketing specialists year-round anyway.
However, Cyber Monday marketing can also be used in order to increase organic traffic both for the event itself, as well as in the long-term. But how exactly can you prepare your marketing for it, and how can it help your overall marketing strategy going forward?
Below are five key things to focus on when you’re marketing for Cyber Monday; that being said, that doesn’t mean that you should only focus on these five. Rather, you should get these perfect and then branch off from them. They’re essentially the main pillars holding up your marketing and sales strategy; a foundation to build from, so to speak.
Have Your Content Ready
This one should be obvious, but it’s worth saying it anyway; plan out your content in advance so that you’ll have it ready for when you need it. That way, you’ll be able to schedule it out in advance and be able to focus more on any engagement you’ll be getting. Instead of focusing on creating the content, pushing it out, and dealing with all of your other activities.
This doesn’t mean that you have to actually create new content in the lead up to Cyber Monday. If you’ve created great content in the past, especially if it’s the type of evergreen content that can still be found relevant to your offers. This would be a perfect piece that some of your audience has seen before but with updated information, stats etc.
A short example. Let’s say you are selling computer hardware. Maybe, some time ago you’ve created a list of budget-friendly processors. A couple of days before Cyber Monday you could publish the same piece of content with new and updated product info and notify people that you will be offering some or all of them at a discounted price.
A lot of people think that the more content you create, the better. That has a slight bit of truth to it, but what matters most is creating unique, shareable and helpful content. It’s the best way to improve your organic traffic, both in the short term and long term. And if you provide your customers with that extra value, they are sure to appreciate it.
Make Sure Your Site Is Ready For A Lot Of Traffic
A lot of online retailers see a surge in traffic across events like Cyber Monday; people are looking for great deals and window-shop on websites in order to get what they want for the best price. Because of this, you don’t want your website crashing or slowing down when you get a lot of traffic.
Make sure to stress test your website. If your website experiences any downtime – especially during this major online event – you’ll miss out on a lot of sales. This will also help with increasing your organic traffic; if customers have a great experience on Cyber Monday, they’ll be more likely to come back.
You’ll also need to make sure that your eCommerce store is well optimized so that potential customers can quickly purchase what they want. If they have to wait too long, they’ll just drop out and you won’t get the sale.
Plan Out Your Email Marketing
The biggest mistake any digital marketing specialist can make in the build-up to Cyber Monday is to only send out one or two emails about the event and leave it at that. Instead, you should plan out a number of emails leading up to, as well as on and after the event. This will help drive traffic to your website and, more importantly, get potential customers ready to buy off your website.
This also ties in nicely with preparing your content in advance. You’re going to be pretty busy around the event, so your best bet is to create each of your emails in advance and schedule them out at key times.
Also, don’t forget to personalize your emails. I know this has been said tens of thousands of times, but it can’t be stressed enough how much it brings “weight” to your message.
Know Your Offers Well
Again, this focuses on preparing well before Cyber Monday. You’ll want to create any discounts or sales well in advance and get to know then throughout. This will make sure that your content can be prepared as soon as possible. It also makes sure that, when you’re creating your marketing content, you won’t have anything that’s hastily prepared and badly worded.
Once you know your Cyber Monday offers, you’ll be able to start building interest in them in the weeks leading up to the event, which should generate a lot of buzz and attract a lot of visitors once your sales actually go live.
There’s no point in just uploading your offers on an actual day. So, create your discounts and sales as early as possible. Then, start creating your content. This is pretty much a precursor to every other marketing tip for Cyber Monday; after all, there’s no point in creating a load of marketing materials and then having to change everything to suit the offers.
Tap Into Your Existing Customer Base
Your existing customers can be either your best friends or your worst enemies. If you treat them right, they’ll naturally spread word of mouth through their friends and family. That’s a given for every company, but online it can mean a whole lot more.
If you tap into your existing base right, such as creating shareable content related to your Cyber Monday sales, they should want to share it across social media, which will expose your content to an even bigger audience. This kind of marketing is great year-round and will help increase your organic traffic across the entire calendar.
How Having Your Marketing Prepared For Cyber Monday Will Increase Your Sales?
Preparing your marketing for Cyber Monday will have a major effect on increasing your organic traffic. Sure, there’ll be a number of visitors who will only visit your site for the deals, and only buy when products are discounted, but if your marketing – and products – are good enough, then you’ll gain a few new customers.
Marketing your offers the right way will benefit you, not only in sales results around Cyber Monday but it will also help you build up trust and create satisfied returning customers. Christmas is just around the corner, why not “kick-off” this festive season with a strategic approach that could elevate your sales to the next level? If you prove your value and manage to get the customers trust, it’s more than likely they will remember you during their gift shopping spree in December and even after that.
To draw a bottom line, be sure to have your marketing prepared for Cyber Monday. Think about your offers, prepare useful content, guide new and old customers to that content in the days leading up to the event and make sure your website can handle the load. And don’t forget, all of the advice above can and should be used throughout the whole year and on all of the events you plan to cover.
cyber monday marketing
